Craft An American History

A groundbreaking and authoritative history of American craft and its role in the fight for social progress, from the nation's origins to the present day. The United States has always been a nation of makers. From initial settlement through successive waves of immigration, craft has been crucial to America's economy and identity, appealing to deeply held ideas of individuality and self-sufficiency. But while handmade objects are often valued as evocations of a bygone past, they have also played another, under-recognized role in our history, as forward-looking symbols and ethical guideposts, pointing firmly toward the future. In an important work of scholarship that is also entertainingly peopled and rich with illustrations and visual detail, leading historian Glenn Adamson unspools the story of craft in the United States, and argues for its importance as an activist force in American life. Beginning with Indian wampum and Revolutionary Era silver, Craft: An American History transports readers through the 19th-century utopianism of the Shaker community and the Arts & Crafts Movement, and on to the DIY creativity of contemporary organizing. Adamson's examination reveals that the artisan ethos is inextricable from the history of our nation, and our collective striving toward a more perfect union. In more ways than one, as this timely and absorbing history shows, America from the beginning had to be-and still remains to be-crafted.